DragonAdopters official shutdown
2 month notice On July 28 around 2:34 PM CST, a new announcement titled "Important Announcement" appeared. Within it, to many users dismay, was a declaration by the staff warning of the impending closure of the DragonAdopters website. Within it contained this: Dear DragonAdopters Users, After a long time thinking and discussing, we've come to the conclusion that we have to close down the DragonAdopters game and forum. The shutdown will occur on the last day of September and from now the new registrations will be closed. All registered users will be able to login normally until the mentioned date. It really saddens us to do this and we know this is really a surprise out of nowhere, but we have several reasons for doing this. The admins, including the moderators, have slowly and steadily went their separate ways, having real life issues to deal with. We know there are still many people playing, and new users registering every day. But after many discussions for months now, it is simply too much work to aim for a revival. The whole game code needs a major update and overhaul and it's just getting more outdated every day. You can read in more detail on this issue further down. Simply put, DragonAdopters is too big to maintain, and none of us have so much free time anymore. As much as we would like to continue working on DragonAdopters, the more we think about it, the more we feel it is just wishful thinking and that we're delaying the inevitable. So we would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to all the moderators who helped us over the years. They all invested thousands of hours of their time and we all managed to raise a pretty large game and forum. It wasn't easy, we had bad days and good days, but in the end it was really fun for all of us to work on something that other people can enjoy. It was truly a pleasure to watch the game and the community grow and we are all extremely proud of it. Also we would like to thank all the users who played and enjoyed our game and also all the artists who created all the wonderful art based on DragonAdopters. We never expected it to become so popular and inspire so many people. Thank you all for your support. Now a few words and some technical information from our current Server Admin Dravere: I would like to explain a bit of the technical problems DragonAdopters currently has. I think this is a big reason why DragonAdopters will be closed. Lets be straightforward. The code behind DragonAdopters is working. But it is one big mess and far far away from maintainable. I won't really blame Thaz or Darcara for this. They made their best. They simply didn't knew. They didn't had the knowledge how to write maintainable software. And I'm sure Thaz learned quite a lot about software development in this process. I think the main thing about it is, that he doesn't really like developing software.The game won't survive if we now simply add a new dragon race. It needs real new content, new possibilities to do with your dragons. It needs new logic, new program code. And with the current state of the code behind DragonAdopters, this is not possible. We first would need to refactor the code. Meaning we have to change it, without changing the functionality, to get the code back into a maintainable state. But this is a enormous task. Especially because at least I don't have the time available for this. It probably would take me a year or even more with the time I have available. And I don't think Thaz is really that motivated to do the task by himself. So why not let it run by itself? Why do we have to shut the servers down? Let me tell you, that we are being attacked about three times a month. Most of those attacks are nothing. A script kiddie tries to get into the server with simple tricks of some security issues perhaps discovered some months or years back. Or perhaps even only some bots. But I think you already got it. We have to maintain the server and keep it secure. This actually means work. In addition the code behind DragonAdopters already uses some deprecated functionality. We already receive some warnings because of this. If we continue to update the server - and we have to - we will get to a point, where this functionality is not only deprecated anymore but simply got removed. This will then break DragonAdopters. Also I think it is much more honest towards the players to shut the server down than to slowly letting it die and at some point, when the update actually breaks DragonAdopters simply go offline. But I have to admit it too. It is really sad that this great project is coming to an end. And I can only congratulate Thaz for the success he had with this project. Thank you all, if you have any questions, send a us a note. Your admins, Thaz, Draconis & Dravere Reactions were generally mixed. Some were probably angered by the actions (or lack thereof) of the staff, some were sad either because they just joined recently, made a lot of memories that they don't want to lose, or just didn't want to see the site go away. Others however may have felt indifferent and left the site simply not wanting to see it in its dying days. Aside from the notice, many long time members knew that this was coming. Lack of activity from the staff, very few updates to the announcements section, the Secret Santa news still posted in the forums for almost a year. We were given 2 months to enjoy the site. Friends exchanged emails and links to membership pages of other online games they were playing, Flight Rising among them. Members kept tending to their dragons, spending as much time as they could, all the while some users decided to let their dragons go, too sad to see them go when the time came. Others collected screenshots and saved entire webpages so that they would never forget the dragons (and friends) that they had spent almost 5 years with. Dragon coins were freely given to those that didn't have enough, so that they could adopt one last dragon, and traders on the item and aura markets bought and sold at below average prices. Many of us felt a sense of unity in those last days, as if we were holding each other’s hands and telling each other that it would be all right. Shutdown of the DragonAdopters game When September 30 had come to a close at the International Date Line, DragonAdopters was officially shutdown. What was left on the "Home" page was this final message from the server admins. Dear users, As much as it saddens us to announce this news, DragonAdopters Game & Forum will be closing this September 2013. All of us in the administration are extremely proud of the game, and what a small group of dedicated people can achieve together. It has been a great privilege to offer an adoptable game for all the dragon lovers out there. It has been long 5 years and we have seen the game grow so rapidly and evolve with the help of everyone in the moderation, as well as the community itself. The site has seen its good days and bad days, but overall I would say it has been so much fun to share our passion for dragons with people from around the world. We were told that some players even met each other in person through DragonAdopters and this is truly a wonderful surprise. We cannot express how glad we are to hear so many people have come together and formed friendships. It is unfortunate we have to shut down DragonAdopters, but it is preferable than letting it die off slowly. We've had a lot of heated discussions regarding the shutdown, going back and forth with arguments, but in the end we concluded it couldn't be avoided. It was never about the donation money or manpower. The game was simply never designed for such a large player base and there were many technical problems in the background, which usually go unnoticed by the players. We fixed it as much as we could, but these things tend to pile up until the whole system breaks. Meanwhile during these years, we've all grown older and life priorities start to change; moderators come and go, even some administrators change over time, and we all have our personal lives to think about. Like breaking up with your boyfriend or girlfriend, family member passed away, problems with grades in school, university becoming too hard, friends parting ways, finding a new job etc. I think everyone can easily relate to this, as we've all experienced these issues. Suddenly, time becomes a scarce commodity and we don't have enough time anymore to devote our full attention to the site. And with the increasing technical issues, it was unavoidable to close it down. But looking on the brighter side, DragonAdopters helped many people to meet other dragon lovers such as themselves. It also inspired many people to draw wonderful pieces of fanart, as well as a lot of literary works and role-playing sessions. We are so happy the artists found the game content motivating to produce such amazing artwork. In conclusion, we would like to thank all the moderators and helpers for their support with both the game and forum. Without their help, we wouldn't have gotten this far. Also a big thank you to the administrators, especially Dravere, who helped with the technical issues and kept the game safe, secure and maintained. And finally, we thank all the users who played and enjoyed our game and helped provide community support, as well as all the artists who participated in contests and created such wonderful art based on DragonAdopters. On a final note, this DragonAdopters tribute webpage also contains all the original dragon artwork and the Forum archive in read-only mode. We hope you enjoyed your stay with us and thank you for all your support. Your DragonAdopters Admins, Thaz, Draconis & Dravere Right beside it is the "Dragons" page where both members and non-members could view the each species of dragon, each element / color, and in each stage. All are presented in an animated .gif format, as well as a static .gif format. The icons that appeared in the bar above users collected resources are also available for each species of dragon and its respective element / color. You are free to use them without asking for permission. No commercial use allowed. Shutdown of the DragonAdopters forums After the shutdown of the game, the forums were temporally closed to all members and guests while it is pushed into a read only mode. It will return in due time when the process is complete. The forums are now open to viewing, users can log in, but are unable to make any posts. The PM system has been turned off, PM's can be viewed and deleted. Lastly users can view their profile, but are unable to change anything. DragonAdopters Forums Aftermath DragonAdopters may now be officially shutdown, but its legacy lives onwards, in the hearts and minds of its members, through saved webpages, and within this wiki. Although separated, users are still gathering outside of the DragonAdopters website. A forum, Facebook page, and Youtube video have all been created by users in commemoration of a site we all once knew and loved. dragons4ever - DragonAdopters Memorial Fan Forum DragonAdopters Tribute - Facebook A Tribute to the Closing of a Great Site - Video by ICEDRAGON309 ---- The tears I feel today I'll wait to shed tomorrow. Though I'll not sleep this night Nor find surcease from sorrow. My eyes must keep their sight; I dare not be tear-blinded. I must be free to talk Not choked with grief, clear-minded. My mouth cannot betray The anguish that I know. Yes, I'll keep my tears till later: But my grief will never go. Song for Petiron by Menolly Ch 6 heading for Dragonsinger